I could have gone to college anywhere, and I choose to stay in New England.
I almost went to South Carolina, I could have gone to Florida. I could have packed up and gone to California and live somewhere sunny, somewhere where snow days were unthinkable.
I could have gone anywhere, and I stayed in New England.
And now there are eighteen inches of snow outside, some people in the state still don't have power, and I cannot remember what spring is like.
Please, let me explain why I'm still dealing with this.
I love New England, and I probably won't live anywhere else. I love the Red Sox and the Patriots and the Bruins and the Celtics. I like my radio stations, and I like my news anchors, and I like my meteorologists. I like my restaurants just where they are, and I like my life just how it is in New England. I like everything how I like it, and I like it here.
I used to think about packing everything up and moving to California, where people are famous and they don't have a permanent chip on their shoulder, where cars stop for pedestrians, and you don't get three feet of snow every March.
That's not going to happen.
People in New England, specifically around Boston, are different. They go out even when there's a Nor'easter because they need a coffee and Dunks didn't close. They drive like idiots to avoid potholes and they drive like assholes and god knows they don't care. They survive snow storms, and they have high test scores and they grow up angry. They have road rage. They go to the Cape every summer, and they run the marathon, and they do everything else that normal people wouldn't do.
I stayed in New England because of the people, and I probably won't ever leave.